Reiterating his earlier stand on re-joining Nitish Kumar’s party, election strategist-cum-politician Prashant Kishor on Thursday, while confirming that he met the Bihar Chief Minister two days back, said that he will only return to JD(U) if Kumar fulfills the Bihar government’s promise of providing at least 10 lakh jobs within a year in the state. Meanwhile, Kumar also agreed to have met Kishor, but added that the meeting was general courtesy, not political.
As the meeting set off buzz of Kishor having softened his stand on Nitish, the poll strategist put out a cryptic tweet, apparently trying to clear the air around it.
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Quoting a verse from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s poem ‘Rashmirathi’, Kishor wrote: “Teri sahayta se jai toh main anayaas paa jaunga, aanewali maanavta ko, lekin, kya mukh dikhlaunga?” The verse roughly translates to: “With your help, I will get victory spontaneously. But what face will I show to the rest of humanity?”
While nothing specific could be made out of the tweet, many believe that the tweet was aimed at dismissing rumours around his return to the JD(U).
For the unversed, Kishor had played a major role in stitching an alliance between Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and JD(U) ahead of the 2015 Bihar assembly elections. Kishor joined the party in 2015, before quickly moving up its ranks and becoming the national vice-president. After the fallout of the Mahagathbandhan and with Kumar re-joining NDA, Kishor fell out with the Bihar CM over the party’s support for the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Having tasted success in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh where he was handling the election campaign for the incumbent ruling governments, Kishor turned his focus to Bihar. Of late, he has refrained from commenting on his future but said that once his 3000-km long padyatra across Bihar is over, he will shed light on his future role in politics.
Nitish Kumar, since his exit from the NDA, has been working towards Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On Thursday, Nitish announced in Patna that all “backward states” will be granted special category status if a non-BJP government comes to power at the Centre in 2024.
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Refusing to share details about his meeting with Kishor, Kumar said, “There was nothing special about the meeting. It was normal. He (Kishor) came along with Pavan Verma, who had met me some days back as well.” Kumar also ruled out any ill-will between Kishor and him and stated that they share an “old relationship”.